Australian Visions

The Australian High Commission, New Delhi and Suchitra Film Society present “Australian Visions: A festival of acclaimed Australian films”, in Bangalore from 14-17 March 2008.

The film festival is part of a package of contemporary Australian cinema called the “Embassy Roadshow” and is brought to India under the auspices of the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and the Australian Film Commission.

The four-day festival will be opened by Mr I M Vittala Murthy, Secretary, Department of Kannada and Culture, Information and Tourism, Government of Karnataka. Popular Australian radio and TV science communicator, Dr Karl Kruszelnicki, will be special guest at the opening. Others who will be present include Mr Subba Rao, Chairman, Karnataka Media Academy; noted Kannada filmmaker Girish Kasaravalli, and Mr Murray Harris, Head of Public Affairs, Australian High Commission.

“Through the films in the festival, we hope to showcase to Indian audience the varied facets of life in Australia, its history and Australian cinematic excellence,” said Mr Harris.

The films in the festival are critically acclaimed at leading international film festivals, added Mr Harris.

The films that form part of the festival in Bangalore include Ned Kelly, starring Heath Ledger, The Tracker, which features Australian indigenous actor David Gulpilil, and the Oscar award winning short film, Harvey Krumpet.

The festival opens with Jindabyne, a murder mystery that revolves around four men who are on a fishing trip in an isolated hill country.

Other films include The Tracker (set in the mountain ranges in the outback in 1922, it is about a Follower, Philosopher, and the Tracker, in the pursuit of the Fugitive); Harvie Krumpet (the biography of an ordinary man seemingly cursed with perpetual bad luck); Ned Kelly (A classic colonial story starring Heath Ledger); The Caterpillar Wish (An evocative, gentle drama about themes of belonging, loss and the need to connect); Swimming Upstream (A true story of hardship that forged an Olympic champion); Dirty Deeds (Comedy about the Mafia in Sydney in 1969); Lantana (A psychological thriller about four marriages drawn into a tangled web of love, deceit, sex and death); Three Dollars (A comedy about an honest man with a wife, a child and three dollars); and Australian Rules (A coming of age story about two communities (black and white) and the one thing they (almost) share - the local Australian Rules football team).

The festival brochure provides full details of the films.

The film festival venue is Vision Cinemas, VCL Ltd. 44/1 (old No. 110), K.H. Road, (Double Road), Bangalore 560027 and is open to the general public on a first-come- first-served basis. Passes can be collected from Vision Cinemas and Suchitra Film Society from 8 March.